Is my psu causing my problems?

Sp00n

Sp00n

Sp00n

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
18,296
Location
Brighton
I've got an antec Trupower 330w which is a few years old now and i've noticed recently some sysmte issues, like the hard drives not spinning up properly and random restarts.

Now whenever i reboot one of the voltage readings goes red sometimes then goes back to normal but i'm not entirely sure what that means.

Here's a pic of my volts:

volt3lk.jpg


Is it time for a new power supply?

system spec:

xp 1700+ @ 1.84ghz
768mb PC2100 @ 166mhz
Epox 8rda+
Radeon 9500NP 128mb (stock)
Maxtor diamonxmax 10 80gb
Maxtor diamondmax 10 250gb

Any advice would be nice :)
 
The +3.3 and +5 live seem to be very low, could you run something like super pi to stress it and see what the 12v rail drops to?


Off topic// I know someone called spoon (well, not actually) in brighton :D
 
Raikiri is correct. All voltages should be between +/- 5%. Your 3.3 and 5V rails fall short of this.

Might be new PSU time!

OT: Raikiri - what's with your sloppy F@H output this week? You should have permenantly stomped me days ago! :eek:

SiriusB
 
How do you know this 'sp00n' then?

Any recommendations on a modular atx psu? or maybe just a normal one.
 
Sp00n said:
How do you know this 'sp00n' then?

Any recommendations on a modular atx psu? or maybe just a normal one.
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Enermax, Seasonic or Tagan. If you want modular then Tagan and Enermax are the ones to look at. Seasonic don't seem to do a modular PSU.

However, modular or not all three are good quality PSU manufacturers.

SiriusB
 
Awesome thanks.

Think i'll go for the tagan 330w psu as i don't really need to be spending much money on this system.[size=+1][/size]
 
SiriusB said:
OT: Raikiri - what's with your sloppy F@H output this week? You should have permenantly stomped me days ago! :eek:

SiriusB
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Too hot and costing too much :D I shall conrinue when it cools down

Sp00n said:
How do you know this 'sp00n' then?
Click to expand...
Went to my school
Sp00n said:
Any recommendations on a modular atx psu? or maybe just a normal one.
Click to expand...

Seasonic 430 can be had for £41, very good PSU.
 
I recommend the Hiper Power 580 Watt.

You can save a tenner over the Type-R version if you go for the non-modular version (like I did :) )
 
Sorry to hijack but this sounds like my problem too.

My comp was working fine on Sunday but when i switched it on, on Monday it kept rebooting. First i thought it could be a ram issue so i removed a 1gb stick. This seemed to work as the computer booted fine and seemed pretty stable for 5-10 minutes. Then the next set of strange things started happening, the display kept cutting out as if it was losing power for a split second. I've checked temps and everything at normal levels. The only thing i thought was strange was in bios the voltages never stayed constant. I dont have the exact figures to hand as im at work but i can get them when i get home.

The only other thing worth mentioning is that the system stayed a little more stable in safe mode, could this be because the stress on the system is a lot lower in that mode?

Please help!

Cheers :)
 
Forget the 3.3V reading, what is displayed is the memory voltage.

The 5V is low though and that can cause reboots, my old PSU was ~4.60V and if it dipped lower it would cause a reboot.
 
Sp00n said:
Awesome thanks.

Think i'll go for the tagan 330w psu as i don't really need to be spending much money on this system.[size=+1][/size]
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Got that excellent PSU :) But recommend you get the Tagan TG380-U01 380W ATX2.0 Silent PSU (CA-001-TG) £39.95. Its ATX2.0 unlike the TG330-U01 which is ATX1.03 therefore it will last you an upgrade :cool:
 
Sp00n said:
I noticed the red reading in the BIOS was the VDD and it drops to 1.47, is that low?
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I think VDD is the chipset voltage, I doubt that is really so low as it is 1.5V default.

What you can do (I think) is raise it to 1.6V but this will cause even more stress on the PSU.
 
You already have a good branded 330W PSU, I dont see the point in switching to another good branded PSU unless you go from a 330W to a higher spec model. (Although looking at your system spec, I doubt you would even be stressing out a 200W PSU very much)

While the 5V line does look a little low, its quite likely that its just the motherboard misreading it. Motherboard voltage sensors are notoriously inaccurate. If you really want to know what your PSU is putting out, you'll need to stick a multimeter onto the outputs. 12V and 5V can be checked on any of the molex connectors. 3.3v you'll need to check directly on the ATX power output.

It would be interesting if you could show the voltages once windows is booted up, a comparison between the voltages with the system idle, and the system at full load would give some 'interesting' data.
 
Raikiri said:
Seasonic 430 can be had for £41, very good PSU.
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I would 100% agree with this recommendation. Just got mine delivered today from another store at £42, best bit of pc kit i have bought in ages. I read that thes ewere quiet but i had no idea just how quiet they are. Loudest component in my system is the cpu fan or hdd's now. Really good voltages on all the rails too.

EDIT: it's hot as buggery here today, and i just noticed in Asus Probe that the PSU fan is operating at 753rpm lol.
 
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Corasik said:
It would be interesting if you could show the voltages once windows is booted up, a comparison between the voltages with the system idle, and the system at full load would give some 'interesting' data.
Click to expand...

The 2 pics at the top are a comparison between idle and full load :confused:
 
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